WACO, Texas (KWTX) – A former Groesbeck husband faces life in prison after being sentenced Wednesday. DNA evidence, GPS tracking technology, video surveillance cameras and his own hat, which he left on the victim’s bed, suggest he was linked to a burglary and attempted sexual assault.

A jury in Waco’s 54th State District Court deliberated for about 90 minutes Wednesday night before finding Justin Nasir Shah guilty of first-degree burglary with intent to commit sexual assault.

The sentencing phase of the trial is scheduled to begin Thursday afternoon. Shah has asked Judge Susan Kelly to determine his sentence, which could range from five to 99 years and up to life in prison.

Shah, 36, a member of the Mongols motorcycle group, was wearing a GPS tracking device on his ankle during the break-in because he faces sexual assault charges in Tarrant County.

The jury found Shah guilty of breaking into a duplex in the 900 block of Briar Drive in May 2023 and attempting to sexually assault a sleeping woman while her four-year-old son slept in a bed in the same room.

The 28-year-old woman and her husband met Shah during a night of drinking at the Dodge City Saloon in Wooded Acres, and the woman’s husband and Shah exchanged phone numbers shortly before the bar closed.

The woman’s husband called Shah after the couple got home and asked him if he wanted to come over to continue the celebration. Shah came over, but the men left soon after because the woman’s husband was afraid they would wake his wife, son and mother, who lived with the family.

The men went to the man’s office on Hillcrest Drive to listen to music and continue drinking, but Shah said he had to leave about five minutes later, while the husband testified he stayed behind to listen to music.

The woman testified she was awakened around 4:30 a.m. by an intruder straddling her chest with his pants down, punching her in the face and holding a gun to her head. She said the man, whose identity she was unable to determine, ordered her to perform sexual acts on him before she fought back and pushed him out of bed.

Shah fired four shots in the bedroom, pointing the gun at her son, she said. Somehow during the struggle, Shah shot himself in the right hip, with the projectile exiting near his right knee.

Her mother-in-law testified she woke up to see the burglar with his pants down. He hit her in the back of the head and forced her to retreat to the safety of her bedroom. She called 911 and Waco police officers followed a trail of blood from the duplex to a nearby apartment complex where Shah had parked his Chevrolet Tahoe.

The husband said he only knew the man from the bar by the nickname “Chaos,” but gave police his phone number, which was traced back to Shah.

Waco police Sergeant Sam Key testified Wednesday that they learned Shah had been wearing an ankle monitor since his arrest in Tarrant County and that his movements that night had been tracked, linking him to the bar, the Briar Drive apartment, the Hillcrest office and back to the Briar Drive duplex at the time of the break-in and assault.

In his closing argument Wednesday night, District Attorney Ryan Calvert praised the efforts of Waco police and the U.S. Marshals Service’s Lone Star Fugitive Task Force, who tracked Shah down at a Waco motel four days later. He called the woman a “superhero” for fending off the attack to protect herself and her family.

According to Key, it was obvious Shah was “on the run and in hiding” because he cut off his ankle bracelet about 12 hours after the break-in and never sought treatment for his gunshot wounds. Officers took him to the hospital for treatment before taking him to jail because his wounds were infected, Key said.

After the prosecution concluded its argument, Shah initially told the court that he would testify in his own defense. However, he began to cry and changed his mind after the judge and his attorney, Walter M. Reaves Jr., warned him that he would be subject to cross-examination and that his previous conviction for theft, the pending charges in Fort Worth and his membership in a motorcycle club might be disclosed to the jury.

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